Illinois Bicentennial: Sent More Than 350,000 To WW I-- Part 2: The American Legion

In honor of the Illinois Bicentennial of Statehood today.

Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner signed a proclamation announcing that the Illinois National Guard and Chicago's Pritzker Military Museum will lead efforts to to ensure the land of Lincoln remembers its role in the Great War.

Records from the Illinois Office of the Adjutant General lists more than  351,000 Illinois men serving in the Army, Navy and Marines during the war and some 5,000 died.

The American Legion Post in Clinton is the Crang-Bennett Post 103 is named for Artie Bennett and  and Army Sgt. 1st Class  Welby Crang, who lived  a block from Bennett and died in France in 1917 from pneumonia.

This post was founded in 1919 to honor those who died but also to help those who returned.  Said Ron Devore of the post:  "Some of the guys had been gassed, their lungs were burned, they had missing limbs and disabilities; they were messed up for life, and they weren't getting anything from the government."